The Declaration is an invitation to key stakeholders in the global food system to join a new private-public partnership initiative.

By bringing together all major market players in the food industry, the initiative aims to identify, align and implement practical and viable solutions in response to growing global food security and safety challenges.

The initiative is an open call for global collaboration to find new approaches that will make it easier, more cost effective and more attractive for farmers worldwide to adopt safe and sustainable production practices. This will make markets more accessible for farmers, and help them sustain their livelihoods as well as reduce poverty and malnutrition.

By joining The Declaration of Abu Dhabi, the partners pledge to develop solutions that will help raise agricultural productivity. It will help ensure food safety and quality, and the sustainability of natural resources without compromising biodiversity and ecosystems. SAI Platform, ITC and GLOBALG.A.P. strongly support this initiative and welcome stakeholder participants.

"SAI Platform was established with the vision to develop a joint understanding of sustainable agriculture and hands-on implementation tools for companies that source agricultural raw materials," said Mr Dirk Jan de With, President SAI Platform and Vice-President of Procurement Ingredients and Sustainability, Unilever.

"Extending this vision and collaboration to include food safety and to reach wider audiences provides unprecedented opportunities to scale sustainable and safe farm practices."

"The fast-changing landscape of sustainability initiatives and good practices in international food supply chains requires effective tools and partnerships," said Mrs Arancha González.

"As such, ITC supports The Declaration of Abu Dhabi and invites all stakeholders to participate in this joint effort, which will support global food security, and benefit producers, traders, buyers, policymakers and consumers."

"Today’s world is all about collaboration. We are proud to be part of this global food security initiative, which gives our members and our 140,000 farmers the opportunity to collaborate with even more industry players and stakeholders, in particular governments and food manufacturers," said Kristian Moeller, CEO of GLOBALG.A.P.

To this end, The Declaration of Abu Dhabi unites public and private partners committed to developing and adopting three important measures:

• A common set of good agricultural practices.
• A system for uniquely identifying every farm that is recognised by all stakeholders.
• A mechanism for securing the commitment and reporting by supply chain partners.

The Abu Dhabi Set of Good Agricultural Practices builds upon established and ongoing work in all aspects of good agriculture and aquaculture practices, including food safety, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The set of practices will draw upon existing standards and assessment tools and will serve as a consistent language for sustainability criteria, applicable to farms of all sizes worldwide.

The collaboration will establish a system for uniquely identifying every farm, ensuring a public reporting mechanism for supply chains. The Abu Dhabi Set of Good Agricultural Practices and the unique farm identification and reporting mechanism will serve as a foundation upon which diverse training, assessment and verification programs may be adapted and built, and impacts may be measured.

A launch event will be held in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on 28 October 2014 in conjunction with the GLOBALG.A.P. SUMMIT 2014 on a special day dedicated to this Declaration and under the Patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of UAE, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority.

A website has been launched to provide information and details about The Declaration of Abu Dhabi. To learn more, please visit www.declaration-of-abu-dhabi.org.